SUMMARY: The $400,000 agreement is seen as a rare victory for low-wage, temporary workers and may affect 1,800 people

By Brent Hunsberger
The Oregonian

It began as a request by 30 workers who wanted New Year's Eve 2004 off with their families.

It ends today with a $400,000 settlement agreement between Del Monte Fresh Foods and eight ex-workers. The former workers accused the food processor and a temporary staffing firm it worked with of violating state law by firing them for complaining about safety concerns and by withholding overtime pay, break periods and safety gear from hundreds of workers in Portland.

Labor attorneys say the settlement --which could benefit as many as 1,800 former workers --is a rare victory for low-wage, temporary workers, most immigrants, who risk being fired when they complain about safety and working conditions. "Ninety-nine times out of 100, no worker is going to complain," said the workers' attorney, Keith Cunningham-Parmeter-Parmeter, of the Oregon Law Center. "This was the outlyer."

Del Monte denies any wrongdoing in the agreement, which will be filed today in Multnomah County Circuit Court. But it agreed to pay $5,000 to each of the eight fired workers who alleged discrimination and will deposit $301,709 into a settlement fund for the class-action claims.

The company's Portland attorney, Brad Stanford, said Wednesday that Del Monte "maintains that it is not liable for any of the plaintiffs claims in this case." He said company policy prohibits further comment.

The case stems from a dispute around a scheduled shift that was supposed to begin at midnight on New Year's Day 2005 at Del Monte's food processing plant in North Portland. On days the plant is busy, as many as 350 workers line the plant's conveyor belts, washing and slicing tomatoes, broccoli, onions and other fruits and vegetables into party trays and bags sold to restaurants and supermarkets.

As the holiday neared, some workers posted signs around the plant inviting others to meet at their temporary employment firm, Quality Manual Labor Inc., to ask for the time off.

About 30 workers showed up at the firm's offices Dec. 30 to make their case to the firm's co-owner David Moore and his assistant, Laurence Rivera. The workers, who earned the then-minimum wage of $6.90 an hour, say they offered to come in early or work later to have the midnight hour with their families.

Rivera and Moore rejected the request and told them everyone was required to work, according to complaints and interview records filed with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and Multnomah County Circuit Court,

Angry, one worker, Rocio Simon-Zarate, then asked them to address ongoing safety complaints that she and others had raised, workers said. Their cloth gloves often tore and plastic aprons got wet and dirty, she recalls, but plant managers allegedly refused to replace them. She said workers had also slipped and fallen on wet floors and labored in cold conditions, she recalls.

After she raised her concerns, as Simon-Zarate and her colleagues remember it, Moore and Rivera declared all of them fired. Many workers quickly left the room, stunned they had lost their jobs. But at least eight remained behind, pressing Rivera about why they had been fired.

In coming days, co-workers chastized those who did speak, the workers say.

On Feb. 25, 2005, according to the complaint, someone called in to a radio show on the Portland Spanish-language radio station KGDD 1520 AM to criticize the fired workers. The caller to the show, known as "Chanclazo," or "old shoe," allegedly called the fired workers "mitoteros" or "mouthy people," and "chismosos" or "gossips," the workers allege.

In the meantime, the workers pursued their legal options.

On Jan. 28, 2005, all eight filed complaints with the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries alleging QML violated state law by firing them for opposing a safety hazard.

The following month, they met with Cunningham-Parmeter at the Oregon Law Center, a nonprofit legal services organization that represents low-income clients. The 32-year-old attorney, who works exclusively on farmworker cases, helped the workers clarify their complaints with state investigators.

In September, while waiting for the labor bureau to complete its investigation, Cunningham-Parmeter filed a lawsuit in Multnomah County Circuit Court against Del Monte, repeating allegations made against QML.

During the case, Cunningham-Parmeter requested wage records from QML and Del Monte. He said he discovered that workers on numerous occasions had worked 12, 14 or 16 hours a day with no overtime. "I myself worked twice more than 19 hours," Simon-Zarate said.

State law requires that employers pay overtime rates to workers who put in more than 10 hours in one day, regardless of how many hours they work in a week, Cunningham-Parmeter said.

In November, Cunningham-Parmeter threatened to file a class-action lawsuit against Del Monte and QML, alleging the companies also had violated state wage-and-hour rules by failing to provide daily uninterrupted meal periods and 10-minute rest periods for every four hours employees worked.

He also accused the company of requiring workers to put on and take off their protective aprons and gloves off-the-clock and to purchase protective work gloves for 50 cents a pair, in violation of state law.

In December, a labor bureau investigator found that QML had violated the workers' rights under state law. A month later, the employment firm and its owners vanished, Cunningham-Parmeter said. On Feb. 27, Del Monte and Cunningham-Parmeter met and reached a settlement with the help of a U.S. Department of Agriculture mediator.

Cunningham-Parmeter said the class action could benefit as many as 1,800 people who worked at Del Monte from 2003 to 2005. But he said he expects 300 to 600 claims, resulting in payouts of $500 to $1,000 a person.

Oregon Law Center will receive $58,291 for attorney fees and costs.

As part of the settlement, Del Monte also agreed to ensure that it pays overtime, provides meal breaks and pays workers for putting on and off protective uniforms.

Nelson Zepeda, the disc jockey of the show "Chanclazo," no longer works at KGDD, but hosts the same show on KXOR 660 AM in Eugene. Zepeda on Wednesday said he could not recall any mention of Del Monte workers on his show but said he discourages callers from naming people or employers.

"If the people mention names, they're the ones who say it. We try to avoid it," said Zepeda, who describes the show as a humor show.

Quality Manual Labor's former co-owner, Moore, could not be reached for comment. His former assistant, Rivera, now the office manager of Avante Employment Services in Portland, declined to discuss the matter by phone.

In an interview last year with a labor bureau investigator, Rivera said he did not remember the workers raising safety issues during the hourlong meeting. He said eight workers were fired because they refused to work New Year's Eve. He said he had never heard complaints about gloves being withheld until a labor bureau investigator brought them up.

For her part, Simon-Zarate said she's glad Del Monte agreed to pay some of the wages she believes is owed workers. But she believes the company and its new temporary hiring form continue to violate laws.

Leticia Rodriguez-Gonzalez, one of Simon-Zarate's co-plaintiffs, said Wednesday she went back to work at Del Monte in June but quit Aug. 3 because "nothing had changed a bit." She said the plant's new staffing firm requires them to buy their own gloves, don and doff protective gear off-the-clock and to wait until the end of their shift to take two paid 15-minute breaks.

The plant's new temp agency, American Staffing Resources, did not return a call Wednesday seeking comment.